


You Wear Your Love Like a Shield

by indigowild



Category: Agent Carter (TV)
Genre: F/M, peggysous, pre-Peggysous, the break up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-02-16
Packaged: 2018-05-21 03:03:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 843
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6035476
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/indigowild/pseuds/indigowild
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was poking me in the brain all day yesterday, so I wanted to get it down on paper/screen. Unbeta-ed. Just a take on what happened after Violet confronted Daniel.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Wear Your Love Like a Shield

“Well, I think you're in love with her.Aren’t you, Daniel?”

 

He opened his mouth to say something, anything, but the words stuck in his throat. How do you answer a question like that, put those words out into the air, when you haven’t even allowed yourself to say them inside your head?

 

“Violet, I…yes. But, I never even stood a chance of being with her. She didn't, doesn’t think of me like that. I mean, everyone’s got someone in their past like that, but that doesn’t mean that they can’t move on.”

 

Eyes bright, she shook her head.

 

“But you didn’t move on. You moved away, came here and tried to make yourself an entirely new Daniel Sousa. Chief Sousa, with his new car, new house, new clothes, new girl. But your heart…your heart never changed, Daniel. Because that’s the real you.”

 

“That doesn’t change the fact that I love you, Violet. That I asked you to be my wife.”

 

Violet held her hand up between them, the diamond twinkling faintly. She swallowed, squared her shoulders and pulled herself tall.

 

“When did you buy this ring, Daniel?”

 

“What?”

 

“When did you buy this ring, Daniel? When did you decide to ask me to marry you?”

 

“I…I went out and bought it at lunch last Thursday. But, I’d been thinking—“

 

She let out a short dry laugh, nodded, and pressed her lips together.

 

“You bought it right after she came out here, didn’t you? Do you honestly think that was a coincidence? We’d only been dating six months, and all of a sudden you had this whim to propose to me? Don’t you see it? Even now, you’re still running away from her, using this ring as a shield.”

 

Something deep in his stomach froze, twisted, her words echoing in his chest. Coward. He, Daniel Sousa, was a coward, and a blind one not to have realized what he had done. Peg had come into his office, a whirlwind of red lips, danger, and bad plans. And he had tried to anchor himself, fighting to keep his new life intact—his achievements, his progress, his new path. Keep her looking at the surface so she didn’t see how he was still in love with her.

 

“I’m. God, I’m so sorry, Violet. I really did, DO want to marry you. But you’re right. It was way too soon, and I…rushed it. Because I didn’t want those old feelings to mess up what you and I have. You’re the one who loves me, Vi, not her.”

 

“Do you really believe that? Do you not see how she looks at you? My God, I’ve only been around the two of you together a few times, and I can see it. Her eyes relax, her smile becomes more real, and then it’s like she forces herself to pull back, and just for a second she looks so sad before she slips a different smile on. I know what people’s faces say, Daniel, it’s my job to watch my patients while I’m treating them, to see how they really feel. Her face…Peggy loves you. And both of you are too stubborn and proud to do anything about it.”

 

Slipping off the ring, she pressed it into his hand, closed his unresisting fingers around it.

 

“I love you, Daniel. And I know that you love me. And I’m sure that over time, things with us would have been great, for a while. But, I can’t do this. I can’t marry you and have you go out on some mission, knowing that if there is danger, you’ll sacrifice yourself to save her…because you love her. Not save yourself, so that you can come home to me. I’m sorry, Daniel.”

 

There was nothing he could say to that. Nothing that would be honest and fair to either of them.

 

She leaned forward, pressing a quick kiss on his cheek, the smell of her lilac perfume so familiar. Swiping her eyes with the sleeve of her robe, she sniffled and cleared her throat.

 

“You need to go home now, Daniel, get some sleep, I’ve got to work in the morning. I don’t know who it is you are up against, but you’re going to need to be at your best to take them down. And Peggy’s going to need you by her side when you guys do it.”

 

“Vi—“

 

“Just, don’t, Daniel, don’t. I won’t lie and say that it doesn’t hurt. Because it does. It hurts a lot right now. But we both know this is the honest thing to do, the right thing. We can talk in a few days, have lunch, be friends, I’d like it if you didn’t just disappear from my life. And if ANYTHING happens to you or Peg or Rose or any of your crew, you can always bring them to me to stitch up. Okay? Promise?”

 

The lump in his throat was agonizing. He blinked back the stinging in his eyes.

 

“I promise, Vi. And again. I’m sorry.”

 


End file.
